WILLIAM COBBETl. 83 



To this, more than to any other thing, I owed my very extra- 

 ordinary promotion in the army. I was " always ready ; " if I 

 had to mount guard at ten, I was ready at nine ; never did 

 any man, or anything, wait one moment for me. Being, at 

 an age under twenty years, raised from corporal to sergeant- 

 major at once, over the heads of thirty sergeants, I naturally 

 should have been an object of envy and hatred ; but this 

 habit of early rising and of rigid adherence to the precepts 

 which I have given you really subdued these passions, because 

 every one felt that what I did he had never done, and never 

 could do. Before my promotion, a clerk was wanted to make 

 out the morning report of the regiment. I rendered the clerk 

 unnecessary, and long before any other man was dressed for 

 the parade, my work for the morning was all done, and I 

 myself was on the parade, walking, in fine weather, for an 

 hour perhaps. My custom was this : to get up in summer 

 at daylight, and in winter at four o'clock — shave, dress, even 

 to the putting of my sword-belt over my shoulder, and havint^ 

 my sword lying on the table before me ready to hang by my 

 side. Then I ate a bit of cheese, or pork and bread. Then 

 I prepared my report, which was filled up as fast as the com- 

 panies brought me in the materials. After this I had an hour 

 or two to read before the time came for any duty out of doors, 

 unless when the regiment, or part of it, went out to exercise in 

 the morning. When this was the case, and the matter was left 

 to me, I always had it on the ground in such time as that 

 the bayonets glistened in the rising sun — a sight which gave 

 me delight, of which I often think, but which I should in vain 

 endeavour to describe. If the officers were to go out, eight 

 or ten o'clock was the hour, sweating the men in the heat of 

 the day, breaking in upon the time for cooking their dinner, 



